Standing Desk or Coffee?

Do you work in an office? Have you never understood the appeal of standing desks? Past research has pointed to the fact that sitting for 6 hours a day increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, there’s no need to order your standing desk quite yet! A new study has shown that coffee consumption could counteract these risks. Researchers in China analyzed data from a CDC survey of the exercise habits and dietary habits of 10,000 participants. The results of this study have been reported widely. However, news reports on scientific studies are often presented without context. What does the research actually say?

This research was based on ongoing data collected by the CDC. The CDC’s survey, NHANES, is designed to collect data to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States. The researchers used data from 2007-2018 for their study. Beginning with a large sample of 60,000 participants, they narrowed it down to 10,000 who had complete data about exercise, coffee consumption, and other potential mortality factors.

Across all participants, sitting more the 6 hours a day on average was associated with higher mortality, especially due to CVD. However, regular coffee with a lower risk of mortality. This protective effect was observed regardless of sitting time. This suggests that coffee consumption could have a counteractive effect.

Many news outlets have reported on this study. Like many reports of scientific research, it is often lacks the necessary context. This one study suggests a possible correlation, nothing more. Even with the seemingly large sample size, there were only 945 deaths among the 10,000 participants. The findings are far from conclusive.

The study points out that the effects of long hours of sitting, as well as coffee consumption, have been studied before. This is the first time the two have been studied in tandem. Their findings suggest that coffee’s health benefits are present regardless of exercise habits. It’s a study that could benefit from further research. The study itself points out a few of these blind spots. Their findings did not take the age of participants into consideration. Some of the data was self reported, making it potentially unreliable. The data was not collected in a way to establish causal links.

This study makes use of some of the broad survey data provided by the CDC. It finds an interesting correlation between coffee consumption, sitting habits, and mortality. The study itself does not indicate much beyond that! The paper is available here if you want to learn more about how it was conducted. Additionally, we should make it clear that you should not get health advice from a coffee shop newsletter.

However, if you do find the study compelling, we have a great selection of coffee to choose from.